Mutualistic Networks
Jordi Bascompte and Pedro Jordano
Abstract
Mutualistic interactions among plants and animals have played a paramount role in shaping biodiversity. Yet the majority of studies on mutualistic interactions have involved only a few species, as opposed to broader mutual connections between communities of organisms. This is the first book to comprehensively explore this burgeoning field. Integrating different approaches, from the statistical description of network structures to the development of new analytical frameworks, the book describes the architecture of these mutualistic networks and shows their importance for the robustness of biodi ... More
Mutualistic interactions among plants and animals have played a paramount role in shaping biodiversity. Yet the majority of studies on mutualistic interactions have involved only a few species, as opposed to broader mutual connections between communities of organisms. This is the first book to comprehensively explore this burgeoning field. Integrating different approaches, from the statistical description of network structures to the development of new analytical frameworks, the book describes the architecture of these mutualistic networks and shows their importance for the robustness of biodiversity and the coevolutionary process. Making a case for why we should care about mutualisms and their complex networks, this book offers a new perspective on the study and synthesis of this growing area for ecologists and evolutionary biologists. It will serve as the standard reference for all future work on mutualistic interactions in biological communities.
Keywords:
biodiversity,
mutualistic interaction,
network structures,
coevolution,
mutualisms,
evolutionary biology
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780691131269 |
| Published to Princeton Scholarship Online: October 2017 |
DOI:10.23943/princeton/9780691131269.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Jordi Bascompte, author
Estación Biológica de Doñana
Pedro Jordano, author
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
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